Mars Exploration Rovers Update - March 7, 2004

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/daily/3-7-04.cfm

Spirit Status for sol 62
Rolling Along
posted Mar. 7, 12:15 pm PST

During its 62nd sol on Mars, ending at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, PST,
NASA's Spirit advanced about one-fifth of the remaining distance
between where it began the sol and its mid-term destination, the rim of
the crater nicknamed "Bonneville." In the martian afternoon, Spirit took
images and infrared readings of the area right in front of its stopping
place to support the following morning's close-up inspection of that
new location with instruments on the rover's robotic arm.

Spirit drove 26.15 meters (85.8 feet) on sol 62, bringing its odometer
total to 250.71 meters (822.5 feet). Some of the drive maneuvered
around obstacles. The net gain in the northeasterly direction toward the
crater rim was 22 meters (72 feet), and that destination was estimated
to be about 88 meters (289 feet) away from Spirit's new location. The
miniature thermal emission spectrometer was used for ground and sky
observations both before and after the drive.

The wake-up song for the sol was "My First Trip to Mars," by Atticus
Fault.

For sol 63, ending at 11:10 p.m. Sunday, PST, Spirit's agenda is to drive
on toward the crater rim after using the microscope and spectrometers
on its arm to inspect the site where it wakes up.



Opportunity Status for sol 42
No Hole This Time
posted Mar. 7, 12:15 pm PST

NASA's Opportunity attempted to grind a shallow hole into a target
called "Flat Rock" during its 42nd sol on Mars, ending at 10:51 a.m.
Sunday, PST. However, the operation of the rover's rock abrasion tool
produced almost no discernable impression on the rock. All indications
are that the tool is healthy. Controllers plan to run some diagnostic
tests during sol 43 (ending at 11:31 a.m. Monday, PST) to aid with
tuning parameters for a second grinding attempt on the target on sol 44.

Opportunity observed the Sun with its panoramic camera on sol 42 as a
practice run for future imaging of Mars' moon Phobos passing in front of
the Sun. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer was placed against
"Flat Rock" for an overnight reading to identify the chemical elements
present.

Wake-up song for the sol was "Break on Through (to the Other Side),"
by The Doors.